"Group think' undermined government at the top

ANOTHER VIEW

October 31, 2004|By John Karakash, Special to The Morning Call - Freelance

I can hardly wait for the partisans to end pre-election distortions, half-truths, spin and character assassination. Hatred got the best of our passions just as hatred against America got the best of piety among religious extremists inspired by Osama bin Laden. Rather than debates on significant positions, or on platforms, election politics converted conventions into assemblies where partisans, energized by hatred, trashed opponents.

Bin Ladenism disrupted our national life, not excluding governance. This saddens me. These events take me back to my youth. A self-made man, my father, imprisoned in the Ukraine by the Bolsheviks after World War I, saw in Woodrow Wilson an inspiring statesman who established the League of Nations and ensured a peaceful transition of a defeated Ottoman Empire into present-day Turkey.

After World War II, he saw America emulate Wilson, ensure the defeat of Hitler and Japan and then help them become the prosperous democracies they are today, countering Soviet aims to enslave a devastated Europe. When I last saw my father in 1953 (he died in 1955) his admonition was brief: "You are now the citizen of the country that is trying to build a better world. Serve it." I keep trying.

I am numbed by ongoing developments. I react to events but I cannot relate them to national purpose. Confused and uncertain, I revert to the origin of things. Aspiring to become a citizen, I tried to learn all I could about the nation's birth, spent hours reading about the deliberations of the Founders at the 1787 Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia. Details about the proposed federation were published in 85 New York newspapers and reprinted in all other states. Opponents countered with Anti-Federalist articles, so the people were kept informed.

The Federalist Papers portray men endowed with the rare combination of wisdom and imagination. Over the last few years, leaders of both parties have been uncertain and at times deceitful. I would like to amplify upon this.

During the inglorious "no American casualties" Kosovo war against tyrant Slobodan Milosevic, bin Laden was a side issue, even after suicide bombings in Africa and the Near East had claimed hundreds of American lives. What is hard to swallow is that Washington knew that the rebels that Milosevic was fighting were terrorists funded by bin Laden. Our first ambassador to Belgrade reported that the rebels were terrorists. After a Balkan trip, the chairman of the House Task Force on Terrorism confirmed this, adding that the terrorists were funded by bin Laden. The director of the House Terrorist Operations Task Force also confirmed this, providing names of hardened Afghan commanders who were training and aiding the Kosovo rebels. Afghans in Kosovo?

All this will surface if Milosevic lives long enough and has his own witnesses. Chances are this will not happen. Washington would much prefer a Hague Tribunal decision to abort the trial for reasons of Milosevic's health.

How can one assert that the Clinton administration did all it could to contain bin Laden? Testifying before the 9-11 Commission, White House officials asserted that it did. In reciprocity, Clinton administration officials asserted that the Bush administration also did all it could to contain bin Laden before 9-11. The mandate of the commission was to investigate intelligence failures prior to 9-11. So, the commission did not challenge these assertions. Urging adoption of its proposals, the commission warned: "It has been three years since 9-11 and we have already had another failure, this time in Iraq."

These two failures have little in common. The 9-11 failure was due to the inability of Cold War-trained intelligence agents to penetrate bin Laden's network. The failure in Iraq was due to dysfunction at the top, fostering deceit.

Our constitutionally mandated governance tripod of the executive, legislative and judicial branches is broken. The executive treats the Senate as "an appendage," a constitutional nuisance. The current Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman admitted that "even if the decision (to invade Iraq) was correct, the diplomacy was deficient." Along with this, the "fourth estate" the press, counted upon to keep us informed, is the victim of secrecy.

In a Feb. 10 essay here, I had asserted that "the virus of deceit had infiltrated the upper levels of our government," referring to a group within the Defense Department advocating a foreign policy based on fabrications provided by a since-discredited Iraqi exile, Ahmed Chalabi. On June 21 I wrote that the group, encouraged by Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz and backed by Vice President Cheney, had a messianic vision: "to remake the Middle East...starting with Iraq."

Secretary of State Colin Powell was bypassed; the Senate was not consulted; the CIA, an agency, buckled under upper level pressure. A London Times editorial on July 10 observed that the CIA should not be singled for blame about Iraq. It named "group think" as the source of deceit. Just who or what is "group think?" On Oct. 21, a report by members of the Senate's Armed Services Committee named defense undersecretary Douglas Feith as "Mr. Group Think," accusing him for "continuing deception of Congress."

I believe that the breakdown of our constitutionally mandated governance "tripod" is of far greater consequence than intelligence failures. I am saddened that neither candidate for president raised the issue.

John Karakash of Bethlehem is dean emeritus of engineering at Lehigh University. He has had a lifelong interest in foreign policy.